Chirac urges doubling of aid for African development
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-05 09:12

Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure had on Saturday described cotton, which he said was produced by 33 African countries, as "symbolic of inequitable trade".

"Are we going to continue in Africa sowing cotton to harvest deficits, while others, more affluent, sow the same cotton to harvest subsidies?" he said.

The European Commission has said it will push for a substantial cut in cotton subsidies in Hong Kong, and Chirac called here on the United States to remove subsidies to their cotton producers.

Fighting illegal immigration has also been a key agenda item for the summiteers, who said the solution involved development of countries "through increased support from the industrialized world and new arrangements on debt".

Thousands of people, mainly west Africans escaping chronic poverty, regularly undertake dangerous treks in the hands of costly guides across the vast Sahara desert, hoping to get into Spain and thereby the EU.

The problem was highlighted by the recent deaths of a number of sub-Saharan immigrants trying to scale razor-wire fencing to enter Spain's north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

Sixty percent of Africa's population of 830 million are aged under 25 on a continent ravaged by AIDS and war and where the UN says 320 million people survive on less than a dollar a day.

On Saturday, Chirac said France would seek to raise its official development aid to 0.7 percent of gross domestic product between now and 2012, adding that he would try to convince the EU to do the same by 2015.

And the troubled west African state of Ivory Coast, divided since fighting broke out in 2002, also prompted concern at the summit, which underscored the urgency of choosing a prime minister.

Shortly afterwards, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed the governor of the Central Bank of West African States, Charles Konan Banny, to the job, an Obasanjo aide told AFP.

Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo did not attend the Mali summit.

The first Africa-France summit was held in 1973 and they now take place every two years, alternating between Africa and France.